Background: Pregnancy hypertension today has not a valid etiological explanation. It's possible however that the association of more factors could determine the symptoms. The pregnancy hypertensive disorders are not uncommon, with an incidence estimated from 6 to 8%. Epidemiological studies have shown hypertension in pregnancy increases fetal and maternal mortality and morbidity. Preterm delivery is more common in women with hypertension in pregnancy. The aim of this retrospective study was to verify some epidemiological aspects of pregnancy hypertension at the IV Divisions of I Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the "La Sapienza" University of Rome.
Methods: 1926 pregnant women have been hospitalised at the IV Division from January 1993 to December 1997. Of these 101 had hypertension. Age, hypertension degree, type of job, smoking, parity, previous hypertension developed by patients and their relatives, birthweight, stage of development of hypertension and delivery procedures have been evaluated in this group.
Results: The main data obtained from this study are: strong correlation of primiparity and hypertension (55, 45% of observations); increased risk to have hypertension induced by pregnancy in women that have just incurred in hypertension in previous pregnancy; the high incidence of caesarean section in the group considered with respect to the general population (70.9%).
Conclusions: Hypertension is still a frequent disorder in pregnancy which may lead to serious complications.